Sailing into Design: The Story Behind My Asymmetrical, Modern Sail Boat - Light Fixture

So, you may or may not know this about me...

I am a former lighting designer, specializing in high-end residential, commercial, and hospitality projects. In 2010, for a brief three months, I served as head of product design for Solatube (the Daylight Tubular Skylight company).

I was hired to help them develop a product that would transform their "contemporary" image into a more "transitional" one, thereby increasing its appeal to a broader range of home applications. This was an industry-wide challenge, as daylight tubular skylights typically feature a prismatic lens and a white, flat trim ring to conceal the ceiling hole necessary for installation.

Armed with a credit card and a Home Depot account, I immediately visited local lighting showrooms to purchase and then dismantle various products, ultimately creating 48 mock-ups. We settled on 12 designs, and within a very short three-month period, six of these designs went into production.

To give a bit of context, the designer before me was an industrial designer who worked at Solatube for seven years without producing a single marketable design. In just three months, I created designs that were later emulated by Velux, ODL, and other daylight tubular product manufacturers. These designs were credited by the Eneref Institute for "...changing the daylight tubular industry." Despite this success, I was "let go" from Solatube, with a nine-month severance, as a cost-saving measure to avoid paying my executive benefits.

Subsequently, I launched a company called Solar Luminance—a custom lighting design company that utilized daylight tubular products as the primary source of illumination during daylight hours, and alternative lighting at night.

While running Solar Luminance, I undertook a project for a client in Anaheim, California (along the 91 freeway, next to Arnold Schwarzenegger's former home). The homeowner, an avid sailor, requested a design for an exterior porte cochere with a very high, 28-foot ceiling, ample breeze way, low overhead lighting, and minimal decorative elements to create a welcoming entrance.

I devised a design that could withstand high winds and mimicked the modern look and feel of the home's interior design and architecture. But here's what you might not notice about this design...

Leveraging the minimalist aesthetic, I aimed to create movement and evoke the elements of a sailboat. The blue and two white elements were designed to resemble sails, each capable of spinning independently up to 70 degrees, creating movement and balance. Each "sail" was inset with actual fabric from the owner's sails, fostering a personal connection to his boat. The small triangle (finial) at the base was designed to resemble a rudder, further incorporating nautical elements.

For daylight use, the fixture was illuminated using a Solatube, 14" tube, extended down an antique bronze extension tube, positioning the light 36" below the finished ceiling but 18" above the actual fixture, providing a soft glow to highlight the design.

For night lighting, the fixture used a low-profile Philips LED strip pattern with Cree transformers and thin frosted, tempered glass lenses to create up-lighting and a soft glow.

What I enjoyed most about this design were the personal touches. The design is asymmetrical and incorporates movement. It is both functional and artistic, never truly complete as it moves. Just like a sailboat, sometimes the wind catches the sails beautifully, while other times, with low wind or changing currents, the sails may fall and be less striking. This design represents the dynamic life of a sailboat, always moving and changing with the elements and time of day.

I enjoyed this project because it merged my love of asymmetry, movement, and personal meaning in design.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about my former life as a lighting designer and some details about one of my designs that you "may not know."

Cheers!

Joseph Haecker

Former Lighting Designer